Serena gets official apology over umpire's error

Page Tools

Since Serena Williams wore a jeans mini-skirt for an exhibition match two days before the US Open began, she has been the talk of the tournament. That did not change on Wednesday, a day after she was eliminated by Jennifer Capriati in the quarter-finals.

Agreeing with thousands of befuddled fans who saw Williams' 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 loss on Tuesday, officials from the US Tennis Association apologised to Williams for an error by chair umpire Mariana Alves in the final set. The USTA said it would consider using video replay.

"I did personally talk with her a couple of hours ago by telephone," Arlen Kantarian, the association's chief executive for professional tennis, said.

"She was very appreciative of the call. We apologised and told her how much she meant to... tennis, and we told her how much we appreciated how classy she handled the questions from the media and the situation."

In her post-match news conference, Williams was upset but calm and even smiled as she criticised the officiating. But she refused to blame bad calls for her loss, saying that she merely played badly.

AdvertisementAdvertisement

"It's unfortunate, and as we've said to Serena, these aren't the circumstances under which we like to see Serena bow out of the US Open," Jim Curley, the tournament director, said. "But it's part of the game."

Four questionable calls - some would say outright mistakes - went against Williams in the third set. The most controversial one was when Alves overruled the line judge in the first game of the set.

With the score tied at deuce, Williams hit a backhand return that was clearly good and was ruled in by the line judge. But Alves overruled the call, giving Capriati the point. Capriati went on to win the game.

After the match, Brian Earley, the tournament referee, released a statement acknowledging the bad call. "Regrettably, the replay on television showed that an incorrect overrule was made by the chair umpire," he said. "A mistake was made and I have discussed the call with the chair umpire."

The final three calls that went against Williams occurred in the final game of the match. She twice returned shots that hit the baseline but were called out by lines officials, and once, a double fault by Capriati went uncalled.

Although all four calls appeared to be wrong based on Hawkeye, the digital replay system that is used by the USA Network, the officials said Hawkeye was not always correct. Only the overrule was verified on videotape, so the tennis association considered the other calls to be questionable rather than wrong.

"The only call that was certainly wrong was the overrule on the far sideline," Curley said. "That's not to say that the other ones weren't bad calls. We just don't know for sure."

An instant replay system would avert such controversies, and USTA officials said one was clearly on the horizon.

"I think down the road we're heading in that direction," Curley said.

A system known as Auto-Ref was tested during the qualifying round a week before the US Open. While Hawkeye has a margin of error of two to four centimetres, Auto-Ref has a margin of error of one to three millimetres, USTA officials said.